


Lady of the Lake

by Khione_North



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: A bit of sadness, Cuddles, F/M, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Fluff, Remember Us, Swimming, These two are so cute and sweet it gives me cavities, fluffy fluff fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26015947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khione_North/pseuds/Khione_North
Summary: G'raha Tia was a damned lucky fool, and boy did he know it.
Relationships: G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch/Warrior of Light, Implied Urianger/Y'shtola if you really squint
Kudos: 30





	Lady of the Lake

How long had it been since last they stood together like this on the shores of Silvertear Lake? For her, only a few years, but for him — an entire lifetime and then some. Yet now, by her side once more, G'raha felt as though no time had passed. She had a way of making everything seem timeless, like this moment captured in brilliant hues framed in the stars reflecting off the lake's dark surface.

"Are you going to stand there and stare at me all night, or are you going to come help me lay out this blanket so we can actually do some stargazing?" Khione teased, breaking G'raha from his thoughts. Her pewter eyes near glowed in the faint light emanating from the crystals around them, full of mischief and sass. His heart felt fit to burst out of his chest at the sight of the admittedly quite petite (for a Hyuran woman) Warrior of Light grinning at him from where she stood next to a large picnic basket. With a wry smirk curling on his lips, he couldn't help but wonder how she'd managed to pack the basket without herself being swallowed up by it. 

She truly made him feel young again.

"My most sincere apologies," G'raha hummed, sketching an exaggerated bow in Khione's direction. "I was too distracted trying to distinguish you from the dark lake behind you, since your clothing never fails to make you blend in. It's not much helped by the fact that you're nearly as short as a lalafell."

That earned him a chuckle, then a balled-up robe thrown at his face with about as much force as a cotton ball. He would've perhaps pretended to be insulted were it not for the realisation that Khione had thrown an article of her own clothing at him, and G'raha quickly found himself feeling flustered.

“I-you-wha-" He had led an entire city for one hundred years, yet suddenly he quite forgot how to think, much less speak or even remove the offending article of clothing from his face until the sound of Khione's cheerful cackling reminded him that he was expected to react.

"I didn't realise that you were afraid of coats, Raha," the young woman snickered. G'raha's ears twitched as he heard her approach, and he caught himself unconsciously taking a deep breath when her rose-and-blackcurrant-and-jasmine scent tickled his nose. His face was flushed when he felt her lean rather far into his personal space to pull the coat from his head. He blinked twice, ears twitching madly, and looked down with a stupefied expression at the smaller mage. To his relief, at least, she was in fact still fully dressed, and it dawned on him that she'd merely removed her inky blue overcoat-dress-thing (fashion was most certainly not his strong suit).

He pouted at her, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm not scared of your clothing, my friend. I simply wouldn't want any passersby to get the wrong idea."

"What? That I have every intention of forcing you to join me for a late-night swim in the lake?"

"No, not tha— wait, what?"

Before he could get an answer, though, the Warrior of Light, Saviour of Worlds, Champion of Hydaelyn kicked off her heeled boots and took off in the direction of the lake, raven curls flying behind her, cool wind whipping her white skirts around her legs.

"LAST ONE IN'S GOTTA BE URIANGER'S TRANSLATOR FOR THE NEXT MONTH!"

G’raha stood in stunned silence for a moment, blinking rapidly as Khione dove into the star-studded water with a giggling shriek.

“Come on, Raha!” she called, beckoning him. Tears of dark makeup streaked down her face and honestly, he’d never seen such a beautiful sight. It was enough to have him removing his own boots, staff, and shirt, and sprinting into the water to join her.

A moment to adjust to the chill and another glance at his hero, a small huffed laugh escaped him. “You’re in a chipper mood this evening.”

Khione floated over to him on her back, skirts and hair billowing around her like a strange raft. She was too preoccupied with staring up at the stars.

“They called her ‘Shepherd to the Stars,’ you know — Azem, I mean…Persephone,” she sighed. Ah. Not so chipper, then. Just her usual façade. 

Khione’s gaze was faraway for a moment before looking to him. “You look like a drowned rat.”

There was the usual Khione North wit. Moment over. Who was he to think himself special enough that she would truly let down her walls of ice built through the harsh winters of Coerthas? So be it. If she wished for a lighthearted, fun companion, then he would endeavour to be so.

“Says the drowned magpie chick,” he quipped. “You look like a nightmare creature.”

She flicked some water at him. He responded in kind. Soon, they were having an all-out splash fight, yet G’raha could feel the heaviness that still weighed on Khione’s soul, the promise she’d made to remember.

Thoroughly soaked and freezing to the bone, the two eventually returned to shore and shed their wet clothing. As Khione so casually put it upon seeing G’raha’s blush at her nudity, ‘A body is a body, and we’ll both catch our deaths sitting around in wet clothing in the cold.’ Who was he to argue with the almighty Warrior of Light? At the very least, she’d had the foresight to bring dry smallclothes for herself, and strangely, also some for him. He decided it’d be best not to ask.

While Khione removed her smudged makeup and tried to salvage the presentability of her hair, G’raha set about preparing the picnic that the sorceress had brought and found himself grateful that she’d also packed three large, fluffy blankets and two thermoses of hot cocoa. Twelve bless this woman.

He handed her one of the blankets, wrapping another around his shoulders — a grand cloak of softest fleece that smelled distinctly of fine perfume that nearly engulfed his entire frame. Khione simply sat on the picnic blanket, staring at him with a slightly confused look.

“What?” he asked, pouting at her.

“Why’d you hand me this blanket?”

“Because your lips are turning blue and I think people might soon start worshipping you as Shiva?” He made himself comfortable, trying not to stare at her too much, lest she think him a creep and a pervert. 

To G’raha’s surprise, Khione blushed a brilliant pink, fidgeting slightly. “Well…I figured we could perhaps…. Och, what’s the word…. Cuddle sounds too childish and strangely sexual, but I suppose it will have to do. I figured we could cuddle and keep each other warm. I brought the third blanket in case the ground was cold enough to seep through the picnic blanket.”

Oh. OH. 

Had he not heard her voice and seen her lips form the words themselves, he would not have believed it in his centuries of existence. Khione Agesandra North wished to cuddle with him.

Now it was his turn to be flustered, yet a bolt of boldness struck him and he found himself quite enthusiastically opening his arms to her.

She fit perfectly against him, the top of her head just high enough that he could tuck her under his chin or bury his nose in her hair without worrying about any discomfort for either of them. Perfect.

They sat in silence for some time, occasionally sipping from the thermoses of hot cocoa and tossing more wood onto the little fire that G’raha had created. It was…peaceful. Comfortable. Everything.

“I wonder if that’s why I’ve always been so fascinated by the night sky,” Khione murmured, breaking the silence. G’raha’s ears twitched curiously, and he tilted his head a little to look at her.

“Hm?”

“Do you ever look at the stars and just…feel small and powerless and lonely…but also awestruck? Like the sudden realization that you’re just one small piece of this giant puzzle with so many moving parts and it’s a miracle that we meet the people that we meet and make the friends that we make and fall in love with the people we love? I think these are thoughts I inherited from Her. When I held her constellation crystal, the way Hades spoke of her…He was devoted to Persephone, to the point that her defection left him vulnerable to Zodiark’s tempering. And the way Hythlodaeus spoke of his friendship with Hades, they were both so gifted and they were such good friends and…These memories, these emotions…Raha…They scare me. They’re mine and yet not and the only time I feel any sense of calm is when I hear your voice anchoring me to the present because you’re here and I brought you back and we lived and Gods strike me, I’ve wanted you back since the day you locked yourself in that Twelve-forsaken Tower because…”

She trailed off, clapping a hand over her mouth. G’raha imagined that if he could see her face, her expression would be one of bewilderment and embarrassment, but also of all the conflicting emotions she’d just revealed to him that he knew for fact she would never reveal to anyone else. This woman was the Warrior of Light and damnably proud to boot. He’d cared for her long enough, heard and read enough stories about her adventures to realise that admitting her fears was something Khione would only do with someone she truly trusted. It had pure, unadulterated hope sparking like a wildfire in his heart.

If he’d thought she was beautiful before, he now found her utterly incandescent, her true heart of hearts laid bare. He, G’raha Tia, Crystal Exarch of the Crystarium, was the luckiest damn fool alive and he was only just beginning to realize it.

“Because…?” he urged, schooling his voice into soothing gentleness despite the rapid hammering of his heart — which she could no doubt feel thrumming through her back.

Khione took a deep breath, then another, another, and slowly — sloooowwwwly — turned her entire body to face him, looking up at him with those strange silvered eyes beneath long lashes.  
“BecauseIloveyou,” she mumbled, staring him down as if in challenge. G’raha quirked a brow, half in surprise and half in sheer cockiness. He was going to coax this out of her eventually because he needed to hear it before he made any move of his own.

“You’re going to have to speak up, Ice Queen.”

Khione narrowed her eyes, the colour rising in her face. She crossed her arms and sat up to full height.

“Because,” she sighed, “I, Khione Agesandra North, love you, G’raha Tia. I fancied you when we first met, and I never stopped thinking of you, and then I fell in love in earnest through our trials and tribulations on the First, even without knowing who you were. The fact that you ended up being, well, you was a happy twist of fate that I’ve decided I’ll not ignore because I don’t wish to be alone anymore and I want you in my life, by my side if you’ll have me.”

His response needed no words as he grabbed her face in both hands and kissed her like he was a man trapped in a desert and she was a bountiful oasis. His heart nearly exploded when she braced her hands on his chest and kissed him back without hesitation.

“My dear inspiration…My Khione, wherever you lead, I will gladly follow, even if it’s just to be your own personal heater,” he hummed when at last they broke apart.

“Well, for tonight, my dearest Raha, I think we should travel to my bed and sleep because all this excitement has me five different levels of exhausted.”

And so, they dressed in semi-dry clothing, packed up their little picnic, and headed back to the Rising Stones, slipping past Y’shtola and Urianger’s late-night reading vigil with practiced ease; stripping down once more into their smallclothes. G’raha and Khione snuggled in the sorceress’s large, luxurious bed and drifted to sleep in each other’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank y'all for reading! Constructive reviews are always appreciated, while offensive comments will earn you the wrath of many magpies:)
> 
> Also! If you enjoyed this fic and want to read more awesome FFXIV stuff, PLUS make friends with all the cool readers and writers of the fandom, then this Discord is for you! https://discord.gg/enabling-debauched-xivfic  
> (I swear, this is legit and I'm not just trying to scam you, lol. For real, these people are wonderful.)


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